MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Apple insists that a "real", hardware-accelerated display must have NO dropped scan likes or dropped frames. Its display output must be good enough for cinema production. That means the display RAM sometimes needs to run at TOP speed. In this model, running display RAM at top speed for an external display sometimes generates a lot of heat.

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DisplayLink technology creates a "fake" display buffer in RAM, sends the data out over a slower interface to a stunt box with DisplayLink custom chips that put that data back onto a "legacy" interface. It is not a true "accelerated" display, and it suffers from lagging.

It may be acceptable for a second display showing slow-to-change data such as computer program listings, stock quotes, or spreadsheets, but NOT for full motion Video, not for Video editing, and absolutely not for gaming. Mouse-tracking on that display can lag, and can make you feel queasy.

In a pinch, it may even play Internet videos without (as one user put it) "too many dropped frames".

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It is really nice to know that you can use a DisplayLink display if you MUST have an additional display for some of the types of data I mentioned. But that is NOT the same as the computer supporting a second, built-in, accelerated display.

These displays depend on DisplayLink software, and are at the whim of Apple when they make MacOS changes. There have been cases where MacOS changes completely Borked DisplayLink software, and it took some time for them to recover.

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I think the Big Surprise for a lot of Hub/Dock buyers is that they thought they were getting a "real" display, but actually got a DisplayLink "fake" Display. If you got what you expected in every case, I would not use such pejorative terms to describe DisplayLink.

Executive summary: ¿Don't need cinema quality on your (relatively) slow to change external display?

Buy an adapter or Dock that uses DisplayLink technology rather than enduring the heat generated by a "real" display.

KUKURUZNIG wrote:

Power consumption is about 19W. Fan noise really makes me crazy. I want just to turn off dGPU and use integrated GPU. It’ll be enough just for browsing and doing coding work.

You cannot; there is no physical connection between the integrated GPU and the outside world; it’s connected only to the screen.

I couldn’t tell you why the 19w consumption seems to make some peoples’ fans ramp up immediately, but it’s certainly not the case for mine or for others I know with similar monitors of lower than 4K resolution.

I don’t want always turned on full power dGPU for that.

I wish to return my good old 2015 MacBook.

They are available on eBay if you really want to go back, but I presume you upgraded for a reason other than just to have a new one.

In my software development company 4 people have this 16” MacBook. No one is satisfied with it working with an external display connected. Everyone is suffering from fan noise and heat.

I guess it’s all what you are used to; I know many who suffered through PC laptops who are thrilled.

That doesn’t minimize your issue, it just reflects that different people have different tolerance levels even if their fans are on high.

Just got my 16" 2019 MBP and on day two of use I noticed the fan running constantly. NOT doing anything that's taking up CPU. Running a few basic apps...Chrome, Mail, Slack, Notes etc. this is quite annoying as I make music for a living and even for rehearsal tracks this fan noise is going to be picked up in the microphone. I wonder if I can send this unit back. I've had it for about a week.

Not the same as the processor is likely more powerful and the dGPU is definitely more powerful.

Thanks to the enhanced cooling performance of the MBP 16, whether you find it to be so or not; independent reviewers have.

Ultimately, a full size pickup is going to use more gas than a compact car even if all you're doing is driving it to the grocery store.

Oh, and once again there is no listed fan noise spec it's exceeding, only your assumptions as to how it would operate.

No need for more powerful dGPU when playing a youtube video let along multi tasking.

No a cybertruck does not use more gas than a compact car.

Yes it's an assumption and it's logical to think a "better" cooling is functioning in scalable fashion for basic tasks. So it's a deception.

By the way, I did notice the temperature issue seems to be fixed. Previously the MacBook itself above the Touch Bar was becoming really hot, now that's better and it's only the fans that keep on spinning to much, even if I don't use heavy applications.

That article has nothing to do with the topic under discussion. It does nota apply to the 16-in model or to fan noise. It was related to the 13-in model not knowing its battery's "full point", and shutting down prematurely (because it had never been fully charged in the first place).

The advice we were giving informally was to charge overnight then do an SMC reset.

The article specified clarified you should run the battery below 90 percent, then stop all activity and allow the computer to charge overnight, then in the morning do a software update.

The advice is likely now moot (and the likely reason the article was removed) because of the finer control of battery operation introduced with "Battery Health Management" introduced in 10.15.5, and described here:

About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support

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Yeah man i told you.

this specific adapter improves things a little but that graphic card heats up little by little the whole MBP.

so there is nothing you can do about it. You have to move out of the MacBook the graphic calculations.

That's insane, I though I was crazy...

I've been using Mac since I'm 7 years old and started all with a Performa 5320

25 years later I buy myself a nice gift, a 3000$ Macbook 16 inch 2019

When it's running Google Chrome and Spotify it's making as much noise as my broken macbook "15" that served me for 8 years.

What the **** guys?

I thought this may be due to the USB - c port since I use an external monitor or the USB - c HUB and yeah I do believe that it may be related to that but now I see I'm really not the only one experiencing this issue. What did you guys do? Get your money back and buy something else or what?

This is so disappointing...

I brought up the issue many times from the day I bought it over a year ago. Apple will just skirt around the issue.

I've bought literally dozens of Mac devices for my company and that's the support I ended up getting. None.

But good luck buddy. If within 14 days take it back as soon as you can.

100% sure man.

you need of course a graphic card + the enclosure. The enclosure contains the graphic card you have to buy.

im using a rx580 so I reallly suggest you use the same graphic card. You can’t use every graphic card available in the market, it needs to be Mac compatible and catalina / Big Sur compatible. The RX580 is.. but expensive. Sorry

I’m now waiting for my second replacement logic board. Bought in April, replaced in August after using the graphics heavily with an external monitor caused the machine to enter a crashing loop. Now again, using heavily with an external monitor the MacBook Pro won’t even power on.

I have a feeling it’s more than an annoying design flaw that causes loud fans, but actually might shorten the life of the computer

Or USB-C dual monitor adapter such as theses (have been using StarTech for over 3 years with no issues):

DP or HDMI 4K https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/dk30c2dpep

or if you don't care how much it costs and one adapter consider: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/dk30c2dpep (check out other adapters they have and choose depending on your device/monitor connections although I'd always go for at least 2K or 4K with minimum 60Hz even for office work). These are find for office or web browsing with or watching some 4K videos on more than one 2K DisplayLink monitors but depends on resolutions etc.

I've got 5 monitors currently connected:

MacBook Air 13 M1 2020:

USB-C port1

- UGREEN 10in1 USB-C hub with 100W power delivery port (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082LPFM1X)

- HDMI port: Monitor Dell 2515H* to HDMI in my monitor

- USB-A 3.0 port 1: StarTech USB-A 3.0 to DisplayPort (DP) in my monitor

- Monitor Dell 2515H

- USB-A 3.0 port 2: StarTech USB-A 3.0 to DisplayPort (DP) in my monitor

- Monitor Dell 2515H

- USB-A 3.0 port 3: Kingston 512GB mini pen drive for TimeMachine backups (to avoid loss of work in case my SSD suddenly dies)

USB-C port2

- Kensington UH7000C USB 3.0 7-Port Hub and Charger, and Sync Hub with Power Adapter

- USB-A 3.0 port 1: ASUS ZenScreen MB16ACE 15.6" Full HD IPS Portable Monitor 15.6" Display MB16ACE USB-A to USB-C mini adapter (these portable monitors don't require additional DisplayLink hardware adapters)

- USB-A 3.0 port 2: ASUS ZenScreen MB16ACE 15.6" Full HD IPS Portable Monitor 15.6" Display MB16ACE USB-A to USB-C mini adapter (these portable monitors don't require additional DisplayLink hardware adapters)

- USB-A 3.0 port 3-7: other peripherals such as apple keyboard, mouse, 2 x WD 1TB and 3TB 2.5" hard drives, headphones etc.

* - the only natively supported by my Mac monitor which sometimes doesn't wake up from sleep but that's another known issue and with a couple of sleep/wake cycles it eventually wakes up without having to unplug cables.

Please note that currently DisplayLink driver doesn't support display rotation on M1 machines (we're awaiting update but might take months before we see it) so only horizontal mode for now. You'll also be at the mercy of DisplayLink guys and their updates so don't recommend updating OS X until it's confirmed DisplayLink driver still works properly on new versions.

That's a ridiculous statement; actually, Intel "turbo boost" makes modern computers more, not less likely, to ramp up their fans as the processor intentionally overclocks itself and heats itself up to extract more performance.

I am a newbie here and too late to avoid that to purchase MBP 16". Now I connected external monitor and my fans always running full blast.

System configurations are 2,3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 - 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB. Is there any solution for fix it?

My old mac 2016 runs with this same process too quietly. I am too confused.